A look at the year ahead for the UK cleaning industry

20th of March 2015

ECJ’s UK reporter looks ahead to important events this year, including the new London cleaning show.

This is the season for forecasting and fortunately few bother to review the results at year end, as most are wide of the mark. This being so we will not be stating any stone cold certainties but looking at some areas which might affect our industry.

The Cleaning Show returns to London after many years. It has been slowly going into decline in Birmingham and the move ought to provide a badly needed shot in the arm.

There are two sides to this. Support for the show from the whole cleaning industry has waned considerably with the inevitable consequences. This reflects on both sides. The industry has a duty to back an event put on with the support of the associations and other bodies to which most belong.

Companies must encourage their staff to attend, as they used to. Students, the life blood of the industry, should not be allowed to miss the show, which can be part of their education. The exhibitors may (and do) grumble but the student of today is the manager of tomorrow and the potential customer.

The show organisers are often blamed for everything that goes wrong - low attendance, poor catering, perceived lack of business (is your product good enough, interesting enough?) etc. Innovation and imagination are qualities required above all. The return of The Cleaning Show to London is, in a sense, a fresh start and the organisers need to think outside the box and give us a show to remember.

To everyone in the industry I say: please go!

What else can we expect in 2015? A general election where the British people have a multiplicity of choice, according to the media. In fact unless there is something akin to a tsunami we do not.

Only either of the two major parties can provide a prime minister, although forming a government may be difficult with so many guests at the affair all interested in holding the balance of power. This, to a very real extent, is a WIIFM (what’s in it for me) election. Are the media, from whom all opinions flow endlessly and often wrongly, correct in their assumptions? As the old expression goes: “I read it in the papers so it must be true.”

One of the election battle grounds will be the NHS. Today the cleaning staff does not get the blame for almost everything. Now it is the managers and nursing staff who are to blame and the consultants and the Government, always the Government. If the NHS is the envy of the world, why are we so low in the European rankings for cancer care, premature baby deaths and other complaints?

Despite continuous outpourings in the press, on television and radio, in Parliament, on the internet, Twitter, Facebook and blogs, are we hearing the truth or opinionated drivel? About the NHS or politics, business religion or anything else?

Many employers recruit people from countries where there is no work, for very low wages and let the Government provide tax credit, child allowance or housing benefit and others to provide a living wage. A boost to the economy, a strain on housing and public services but a boon to shareholders.